Today was a stark contrast to yesterday. Yesterday there was a 4-hour power outage that had to wake me up for a while, not to mention screw up Tom’s plans for the day.

God, things are going so unbelievably well for us! Just when I think that’s it, all the surprises are in, and more good fortune comes our way!

Tom was making $7.35 a year ago today. Then they jumped him a quarter sometime last winter. Then they recently jumped him to $8.75 at the beginning of this month. Well, today when I got up in the early evening, Tom said, “I know you don’t like to talk when you first get up, but I have to tell you something.” I had no vibes about this whatsoever, but they made him the manager of the Quality Assurance department and it’s to pay $13 an hour, effective immediately!!! Do you know how good that is for being in a place where the cost of living is so low?! Well, let’s put it this way, we could almost pay our entire rent with one week’s pay! Also, we’re now able to save $250 a month towards the California move while I spend $250 on myself and he takes $150 (guys never want to shop as much as we women do).

In light of these events, we’re going to delay the bed a week or two, three at the most, so we can get the entire setup at once. Then I can get a new office chair and be done with this plastic lawn chair so I can then tackle the Tonner dolls I want to collect. I don’t want just the dolls, I want some outfits for them, too. The old line is nearly extinct now, so before they retire some of the old fashions I want, I’ll grab what I can. I probably won’t get anything like a computer desk while we’re still in this state, or a new banana palm, my only plant that didn’t survive the trip up here. Besides, we’ve only got so much room in here. This place is only 500-600 sq. ft.

I just can’t believe it! Can’t believe that those people who less than one year ago were living in motels, crying all the time, wanting to die, and selling stuff just to eat were us! I know one thing for sure and that’s that we’re never living without lucky bamboo plants! We’ll keep up the prayers too, though I’m still not convinced that’s where it’s at. I’ve prayed too many times in the past just to be ignored, so I don’t see why God would listen to me now, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. My old attitude was not to pray to someone who could allow for all the bad things that have happened to me to happen, and while a part of me will always resent Him for it, maybe He did it so I’d appreciate the good times all the more and I do! I don’t know, they say He works in mysterious ways, and well, life really is one big mystery. Who knows for sure why we go through what we go through? Why do some get killed in hurricanes while others win a fortune in the lottery?

To finally be able to have choices in life really makes me feel good. To know that we could license the truck anytime we felt like it is a great feeling. We simply choose not to at the moment because the more we save, the faster we’re out of here. Besides, it’s only a 6-minute walk to work. Still, it’s a nice feeling to know we have the choice. Too much of my life has been spent saying, “I want to go here” while fate or someone with more power over me was always quick to say, “No, you go there.” I’d say, “I want to do this,” while fate/society said, “No, you do that.” I felt like a puppet on a string and it really sucked! I was like a robot programmed by fate and whoever had the power to program me to bend me to their will. I’m not saying we’ll always be in the driver’s seat of our lives from now on, but it’s still nice to get periodic chances to be in control of our own destinies for once and make our own decisions. Getting the truck licensed and insured was simply no option for us for quite a while there and you know how it sucks big time to feel controlled like that and like you’re backed into a corner with no alternatives.

If they started throwing even more money, bonuses or stock options at him, then staying here another year would be well worth it. The more money we have to move with the better.

Another thing this raise brings is peace of mind for if they fired him tomorrow or went out of business because unemployment is based on your income. For the longest time, we didn’t have the security of knowing we could fall back on that if things crumbled, but now we do. So you see, we’d not only be moving with money we saved but with 6 months or more of decent unemployment checks. In Sacramento, there will be even more job opportunities where I can finally have medical insurance for myself as well, including dental (I’m still having that pain on and off which Tom thinks is inflammation rather than infection). And of course, I miss being in a warm climate as well as where it doesn’t snow.

For so long I was so sure we’d be doomed for a lifetime of poverty in the city, and we still may be. However, this huge raise has gotten me to see that there’s a possibility that just maybe we’ll be ok and we’ll get to go rural again someday. Just maybe. I think I would rather return to the days of fighting with wells and sonic booms rather than stay just a few feet away from others and have to hear every bark, every shout, every door slam, every fart, and even every burp for that matter!

It’s too hard to explain, but about 6 months from now Tom should know if there’s even more potential or not at this place as far as bonuses and stock options go. If all goes well, this could be the biggest break we ever had in our lives! I’m talking more money than we once thought we could get from the Maricopa house, like thousands and thousands of dollars. It has to do with first a Japanese company placing a huge order, and now a German company in which case screw moving to California just to go motel and rental hopping as we did here, we’d be buying a house there right away! I kind of wish I could snap my fingers and like the city and cold climates. Just 10-20 grand would buy us a house here. I mean, this is almost what he was getting at the bank! He was making $16 an hour when they fired him for not being a religious freak right along with the others. $16 is probably what he’d have been raised to if we were in Sacramento right now because the cost of living is higher there so they pay more.